Path of Exile's War for the Atlas expansion has now arrived with significant boosts to the end-game
- By Ash
- in News
Only a couple of months have passed since Path of Exile's absolutely massive The Fall of Oriath expansion arrived, and already the developers have unleashed another batch of content. While The Fall of Oriath was mostly focused around expanding the leveling content and making the difficulty curve more pleasant, the recently added War for the Atlas is all about bolstering the end-game.
As such, you now have 32 new maps to explore, 10 new gems to play around with, a completely reworked end-game progression system that's much easier to understand, numerous new unique items and modifiers, a variety of bosses and enemies, and naturally, a brand new league to give everyone a fresh start. In other words, the War for the Atlas is a very significant expansion, and a very good reason to create a new character and see what Path of Exile has to offer!
Overwatch's "Return to Winter Wonderland" event is coming next week with new cosmetics and a brand new 'boss' game mode
- By Ash
- in News
This shouldn't come as much of a surprise as we're retracing the events from last year, but Blizzard has now come out to announce that Overwatch's "Return to Winter Wonderland" event will be starting up on December 12th. What might come as a surprise, however, is that we won't just get the same event from last year like what happened with the recent Halloween update. Instead, we will be getting a bunch of new cosmetics (Hanzo, Roadhog and Junkrat have been confirmed so far), a holiday reskin of the Black Forest map, as well as brand new 'boss' game mode by the name of Mei's Yeti Hunt!
The details are still in short supply, but the new mode seems to play very similarly to Evolve. What I mean by this is that five Mei players will be attempting to hunt down Winston while he scours the maps for power-ups, after which the tables will turn and the super-powerful Winston will try and smack down the Mei players instead. Here's the brief developer update explaining the concept further:
Guild Wars 2's December 12th update will even the playing field between Condition and Power builds
- By Ash
- in News
In the early days of Guild Wars 2 every single class used Berserker armor and Power-related builds, while Condition builds were widely regarded as a joke given how easily their damage-over-time effects could be overwritten. As expected, this problem eventually got fixed, though unfortunately it just resulted in most players shifting to Condition builds and propagating the same problem under a different name. Time and time again the developers tried to balance the two sides out, but they were never really successful, especially when it comes to PvP where Condition builds can be immensely powerful.
This is going to change in the very near future, however, as ArenaNet has announced that the December 12th update will even the playing field between Condition and Power damage, as well as slightly tweak how vulnerability is applied. If you're interested in a few examples, here's the brief developer summary:
Hearthstone's Kobolds & Catacombs expansion has now arrived with 135 new cards and a lengthy singleplayer adventure
- By Ash
- in News
After weeks upon weeks of teasers and slow card reveals, Hearthstone's Kobolds & Catacombs expansion has now finally arrived. It has brought with it 135 new cards to play around with, including a Legendary weapon for all nine classes, as well as a repeatable singleplayer adventure!
There isn't a full list available just yet, but you can read about some of the new cards over at the official website. As for the new singleplayer mode, its essentially a mini-RPG. Each run through the dungeon will help you strengthen your hero and your pre-build deck, all in order to defeat eight progressively more challenging bosses. Most importantly of all, the new game mode is completely free for all players, so if you're even remotely interested in it simply head on over to Hearthstone and give it a look!
Life is Strange: Before the Storm's Episode 3 trailer has now arrived ahead of its December 20 launch
- By Ash
- in News
The third and final episode of Life is Strange: Before the Storm is set to arrive this December 20th. I can't tell you much about the story without going into spoiler territory, but you can expect Chloe to get herself involved in a highly dangerous situation that will force her to make "some of the toughest decisions of her life". Fairly standard fare as far as Chloe is concerned, but the stakes are a lot higher this time around.
If you would like to learn a little bit more, and you don't mind some minor Episode 3 spoilers, you'll find what you seek in the recently posted trailer down below. That said, I wouldn't recommend watching the video if you haven't already played through Episode 1 and 2, simply because some of the major events from those episodes make an appearance in Episode 3 as well. With all these warnings now out of the way, here's the video:
FromSoftware (Dark Souls, Bloodborne) are working on a brand new dark fantasy game
- By Ash
- in News
According to one of their recent tweets, the contents of which are entirely in Japanese by the way, FromSoftware announced that they are not done with the Armored Core series. They didn't share any actual details, but they did politely ask their fans to wait for a little while longer, which as you might imagine has gotten a lot of people excited about an upcoming announcement.
Well, that announcement has now arrived, but what might come as a bit of a surprise is that its not for a new Armored Core game! To be perfectly honest, nobody actually knows what this new game even is, but you can get a tiny little sneak peek through the recently posted trailer. Have a look, but I'd recommend keeping your expectations in check:
The original Homefront is free on Humble Bundle for the next two days
- By Ash
- in News
Homefront is a fairly old FPS game with a rather ambitious premise. It attempted to showcase what an actual invasion on US soil would look like, but without shying away from some of the more horrific elements of war. That said, if you've heard anything about Homefront you're probably aware that the end result turned out to be a bit of a mess. A mess with a pretty damn good multiplayer mode, but a mess nonetheless.
As such, I am a bit surprised to announced that the Humble Store is currently giving away Homefront for free. The offer will only last for another two days, so make sure to grab yourself a copy as soon as possible, just to be on the safe side. As always, its important to mention that you don't need to actually install the game in order to claim your copy. Simply add the CD key to your Steam account and you'll be in the clear.